Tread in Charles Darwin’s footsteps on this walk among woods and meadows in the North Downs. Easy walk, good for kids. Combine with trips to Downe House and Christmas Tree Farm

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How long? 45mins-1hr2.5 miles (4km)Public transport: 146 bus runs hourly every day until late from Bromley North and Bromley South (25-minute bus journey from Bromley). R8 bus runs every 80 minutes from Orpington railway station (20mins). 12 mins by taxi from Hayes railway station.Parking: easy, in Downe villageStart of walk: footpath next to Christmas Tree Farm, DowneSteep slopes? None

Walk highlightsChristmas Tree farm. Darwin’s garden and house, wild flower meadows, hedgerows, the chance of seeing Battle of Britain aircraft, beech trees and old, flint and wooden houses and a great church. Nice cake/tea shop and two pubs with decent food. An easy walk, no steep inclines.Great to combine with a visit to Downe House, where Darwin wrote Origin of the Species. His study is kept in the condition in which he worked in it. Thirty minutes’ drive from East Dulwich

Covered on Ordnance Survey Explorer 147 map

Get off the bus by the church of St Mary the Virgin (13th-century; look out for the graves of Darwin’s family) and walk east past

the George and Dragon pub on Cudham Rd. The walk starts with the marked footpath (sign says Biggin Hill and Luxted) a few metres east of the cute Christmas Tree Farm (which has donkeys, llamas and a wonky house), on the road heading towards Cudham (POINT 1). The path is next to a brick wall. Do not mistakenly take the path a little further on signposted to Cudham. That’s another walk... So, on the path next to the brick wall climb over the stile and follow the path (not the driveway), with the enclosures of the farm on your right. Stop and admire the donkeys if you will, then follow the path diagonally to the right, heading south west across a grassy field (after the last enclosure).

After passing through a line of trees, the path takes you diagonally left towards a farmhouse (POINT 2). Watch out for the footpath sign, skirt the house and continue round the edge of a field then (POINT 3) take a sharp right (to head west) at the intersection of footpaths (if you were to go left here, you’d soon enter a fantastic bluebell wood). Cross the road (POINT 3.5) and enter the meadow (brilliant with daisies and buttercups from May to July) bordering Darwin’s house/garden, with small cricket pitch beyond hedge on your left.

The path meets the south-western corner of Darwin’s garden (POINT 4) – you can have a quick peek, but you’ll have to pay if you linger – then cross the great man’s Sandwalk and go diagonally left across another field with a great view of a wooded valley. This is my favourite part of the walk as you look over unbroken treetops to the western horizon. At dusk, watch out for wild deer at this point. Superb sunsets. Don’t let the occasional waft of kerosene jet fuel from the airfield detract from the

timeless vibe of the scene! The path descends slightly

into the valley then joins another trail (POINT 5), this time running north to south. So, turn right here (heading north) and just keep on going through the woods. Biggin Hill airfield is just beyond the trees on the far side of the valley. There is a quiet golf course on the floor of the valley. After a few minutes you will cross a lane (POINT 6) and continue on the path heading north which at one point turns sharp left downhill before continuing north.

This woodland is mentioned by Geoffrey Wellum in his astonishing book First Light, covering his time at RAF Biggin Hill as a 19-year-old

½ a mile▲ N

Between point 4 and 5

St Mary the Virgin church, Downe

Spitfire pilot. The airfield played a key role in the Battle of Britain and today is a base for flying schools, Spitfire joyrides and business jets.

Soon, the path breaks into the open and you’ll see superb beech trees on your right (and some Luftwaffe bomb craters from 1940). You’ll cross three fields on this path (the third is POINT 7) before entering a copse and, after about 100 metres, turning 90-degrees right to go through an opening (the stile has collapsed) (POINT 8) and head east across a field. Until late March 2015 this field was a wild pasture with flowers and hawthorn trees, but now it’s a cereals field, very attractive in June, not in winter.

After about 300 metres the path (now on the right hand side of the field) narrows to become a kind of alley and brings you out in Downe by a bus stop. There’s a great cake shop, much used by weekend cyclists, by the Rajdoot curry house and then you’ll be at the Queens Head (POINT 9). The pub made the news on March 22, 2015, when protestors ambushed UKIP leader Nigel Farage, spoiling his lunch.

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Walk 1: Downe circular

Start

Diagonal path across field

Downe House

Donkey/llama enclosures

Farm hse & buildings

Look for ‘hidden’ stile into field

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Airfield